Radio+Television Business Report

American Tower Corporation has closed its acquisition of InSite Wireless Group.

The total consideration for the transaction, subject to certain post-closing adjustments, was approximately $3.5 billion, including the assumption or repayment of existing InSite debt, and was funded by a combination of cash on hand and revolver borrowings.

American Tower Chief Executive Officer Tom Bartlett said, “We are pleased to close this immediately accretive transaction and expect to quickly begin driving new leasing activity on these high-quality, well-located assets. As 5G densification initiatives in the U.S. accelerate and network deployments in international markets continue, we believe we are well positioned to generate attractive, sustainable long-term growth, including on these new sites, while playing a key role in enhancing mobile broadband connectivity.”

American Tower expects the assets acquired from InSite to generate approximately $150 million in property revenue and approximately $115 million in gross margin in 2021.

One of Kansas’ only independent broadcasters has just seen one of its two UHF television stations placed into receivership.

It’s a channel that serves both Wichita and Hutchinson with a host of digital multicast networks including COZI TV, Estrella TV, Bounce, LIGHTtv and NewsNet.

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In the border city of El Paso, an FM translator at 88.1 MHz and its sibling at 101.7 MHz have offered Christian talk and teaching programs tied to KELP-FM 89.3, a facility located to the north in Mesquite, N.M.

That’s changing. The nation’s No. 2 licensee by station count is buying them.

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On December 22, RBR+TVBR reported on a transaction that will see a reborn “Ritmo” offer Tropical programming to Hispanics across the Delaware Valley, courtesy of Miguel Amador and his Ritmo Broadcasting.

Ritmo also operates a Top 40 operation with call letters that pay homage to a pioneering hit music FM that once served Philadelphia, and a FCC filing now shows he’s buying the AM and FM translator used to power up WIFI.

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Keeping it would have placed a reconstituted iHeartMedia over FCC local ownership limits.

As such, a Class C1 FM licensed to a Minnesota town that serves Grand Fork, N. Dakota, was placed in one of three trusts overseen by Barry Drake, the retired President/CEO of former Jacksonville-based radio station owner Backyard Broadcasting. 

Now, just over two years later, iHeart is reclaiming this FM.

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Television viewers in the largest TV market in the Pacific Northwest can now get a taste of the future.

And, it includes broadcast radio.

Sinclair Broadcast Group subsidiary ONE Media 3.0 has combined both television and radio services for delivery in Seattle, thanks to ATSC 3.0 technology and the NEXTGEN TV voluntary rollout now underway.

How is broadcast radio involved?

Using radio content from Sinclair’s over-the-top service STIRR, the audio channels will be available for free immediately to anyone with a NEXTGEN television set connected to the internet.

But, what over-the-air radio is included? Sinclair’s press release, interestingly, references “radio channels” that are actually Stingray-produced music channels as found on Hotwire’s Fision cable TV service.

Intriguingly, Sinclair did not even reference its lone radio properties: News KOMO-AM 1000 & FM 97.7; Hot AC KPLZ-FM “Star 101.5”; and Talk KVI-AM 570.

However, Sinclair confirms that the Broadcast App developed by ONE Media 3.0 “is the centerpiece for delivery of these new services.”

Piloted by ONE Media 3.0 in Nashville, NEXTGEN radio services, branded as “STIRR XT,” are what’s now available in Seattle.

In Sinclair’s words, “The new technology brings a new ‘age of radio’ into the listening environment of NEXTGEN viewers by utilizing NEXTGEN-enabled TVs and mobile devices to expand the reach of audio services.  Combining these Internet audio services with over-the-air radio is next on the horizon for the Seattle market.”

While it did not offer one set of call letters as part of this new service, Michael Bouchard, ONE Media’s VP of Technology Strategy, said, “This breakthrough technology lays the groundwork for our future plans of enhancing the reception of terrestrial over-the-air radio services throughout the country, as NEXTGEN TV is deployed by broadcasters everywhere.”

 

BRADENTON, FLA. — Gray Television has moved forward with the submission to the FCC of a formal Good Faith Complaint against Frontier Communications in response to the MVPD’s failure to reach a new retransmission consent agreement tied to one of its legacy systems for an ABC affiliate serving Sarasota and Manatee Counties along Florida’s Gulf Coast, and two stations in South Carolina.

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BRADENTON, FLA. — The Republican U.S. House of Representatives Member representing Florida’s Sarasota and Manatee Counties has reached out to the Federal Communications Commission to express his concerns over the failure of Gray Television and Frontier Communications to reach a new retransmission consent agreement for one of its legacy systems and the primary ABC affiliate for this portion of the vast Tampa-St. Petersburg-Lakeland DMA.

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In a formal letter dated Dec. 22 addressed to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, House Member Vern Buchanan expressed his concern “at the sudden blackout of a local news station in my Congressional district.”

Addressing the December 18 removal, by law, of Gray Television-owned WWSB-7 in Sarasota on Frontier FiberOptic TV, a.k.a. FiOS TV by Frontier, channel lineups in the absence of a new retransmission consent agreement, Buchanan says Frontier “abruptly deleted the local ABC station,” and instead began carrying WFTS-28 in Tampa on the cable channel previously home to WWSB.

“My constituents deserve an explanation as to why this happened,” Buchanan asks.

While Buchanan recognizes that both WWSB and WFTS are ABC affiliates within the same DMA, he points out that WFTS airs programming that is akin to less than 50% of WWSB’s weekly programming schedule.

As such, Buchanan concludes, “I urge the FCC to take any appropriate action to help ensure that Frontier acts in the public interest and that Gray Television receives fair and equitable treatment in their efforts to provide local news, sports and entertainment to my constituents.”

A Legacy TV Services Provider Sparks The Latest Retrans Spat Gray Television is dealing with a retransmission consent feud focused on a single Sunshine State property. The MVPD at the center of the dispute, which has led to the latest “blackout” of a free-to-air TV station? Frontier Communications. And, it’s a complex matter involving legacy customers to a grandfathered service.

Two of Nexstar Media Group’s broadcast television stations serving the Mile High City and surrounding area, DMA No. 16, are now serving the market with NEXTGEN TV signals.

As such, Denver-Boulder becomes Nexstar’s 12th market in 2020 to begin offering ATSC 3.0-powered broadcasts to those with TVs capable of receiving them.

And, Denver is the second Top 20 market where Nexstar owns stations to gain NEXTGEN TV accessibility.

The stations offering NEXTGEN signals are FOX affiliate KDVR-31 and The CW Network affiliate, KWGN-2, a former Tribune Media property (hence its WGN call letter reference).

And, like Nexstar’s other ATSC 3.0 television stations, FOX 31 and The CW 2 will participate in the BitPath broadcast data network launching in 2021.

Nexstar EVP/Chief Technology Officer Brett Jenkins says, “Not only does NEXTGEN TV deliver important upgrades for our viewers and advertisers, it also enables us to
begin exploring new opportunities to use this very efficient and effective content and data distribution technology to meet the challenges of today’s evolving digital world.”

This will see Nexstar likely roll out 32 more NEXTGEN stations across 20 markets in 2021.

“When we finish our 2021 deployments, approximately 33% of all television households reached by a Nexstar television station will receive a NEXTGEN TV signal,” Jenkins says.

Following today’s launch, the Nexstar owned or operated stations that have converted
to NEXTGEN TV this year include WFLA-8 in Tampa, DMA No. 13; and its stations in Portland, Ore.; Raleigh-Durham; Nashville; Salt Lake City; Austin; Las Vegas; Oklahoma City; Norfolk; Mobile; and Springfield, Mass.

In June 2016, the radio broadcasting company led by Bruce Mittman and Jim Leven agreed to purchase four radio stations on the Florida Panhandle from Apex Broadcasting.

Now, Mittman and Leven are saying farewell to the quartet of radio properties.

The buyer? It’s a media company with a presence in Central Florida — and on Long Island in New York State.

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Linear TV accounts for roughly two-thirds of all viewing, and its combination with streaming planning and buying can maximize reach and optimize frequency, particularly with the inclusion of first-party data.

That’s a key takeaway from a just-released report from Comcast-owned FreeWheel‘s “Council for Premium Video,” which is full of insights for advertisers “on a decade of chang and the future of OTT” — a subject every TV industry C-Suite executive should be well-versed in.

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Jordan Rich recently concluded a twenty-five year tenure as a late-night talk host at legendary News/Talk radio station WBZ-AM 1030 in Boston.  He’s also worked at WRKO in Boston, and has now added author to his long list of accomplishments.

What prompted Rich to write a book about his time behind the mic? How does he describe the demons and personal tragedies that nearly derailed his career?

Rich provides the answers as he discusses his new book “ON AIR: My 50-year Love Affair with Radio,” in this InFOCUS Podcast hosted by RBR+TVBR Editor-in-Chief Adam R Jacobson.

Listen to “The InFOCUS Podcast: Jordan Rich” on Spreaker.

Travel down U.S. 30 from the Cherry Hill, N.J., area just east of central Philadelphia, and you’ll happen across some smaller Southern New Jersey communities as Clementon and Berlin.

Here, an FM translator has been used to rebroadcast a religious noncommercial FM. Soon, that will change — along with the language of what’s heard on the air.

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At the end of next year, Paul McNicol intends to retire from his role as EVP/General Counsel and Secretary at the nation’s largest audio media company. While he will remain with the company as an EVP providing counsel to senior management, McNicol’s focus over the next year will be “ensuring a seamless transition” to his successor.

That would be iHeartMedia‘s Deputy General Counsel.

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The Hawaiian island of Maui is known for many things, including its own variation of the cowboy — the upcountry Paniolo. In towns such as Makawao, horses and farming still can be widely seen in the shadow of Haleakala.

This explains why one local operator provides Country programming via a 69kw Class C FM.

As of today, its majority owner will no longer hold attributable interest in the station, transferring his shares to the operator’s President. It’s an individual largely credited with bringing hip-hop to Indianapolis.

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A noncommercial religious FM radio station that debuted in 1991 and shifted to its current broadcast frequency in 2010 is ready to make the latest update to its operations in Sanford, Me.

A new tower site on the New Hampshire side of the Maine state line is ready to be fired up by this station devoted to “The Word” of G-d. And, it is using a new Dielectric DCR-H FM
antenna that’s just been installed and ready to radiate to bring new vigor to its broadcasts.

The new transmission system is expected to be fired up in the early days of 2021 by WSEW-FM 88.7 — a Class B that’s getting a power increase with the new antenna.

Until getting a construction permit for its jump in wattage, WSEW was a 10kw facility from a site just to the west of Sanford, Me., bringing a city-grade signal to Portsmouth, N.E. Now, with 17kw from the Barrington, N.H., site, much improved coverage of greater Portsmouth is being had, while its distance now stretches to Old Orchard Beach, Me. in the north to Newburyport, Mass. in the south.

“While the location change brings us closer to higher-density populations, we needed a
completely new antenna system design with a difficult to achieve directional pattern,” said
Ron Malone, President of Word Radio, who operates and administrates WSEW and four
other Non-Commercial FM stations in Maine and New Hampshire. “Dielectric delivered the
circular polarization we needed to reach our audience with greater signal quality and
stability than our current antenna. We also now have a well-engineered antenna built to
withstand challenging climate for the decades ahead.”

WSEW’s market penetration was previously limited with the use of a log-periodic antenna
system solution using linear, slant polarization.

In addition to the advantages of circular polarization, the side-mounted, six-bay antenna will have a prime position on the 400-foot tower to maximize coverage, with its center of radiation at 287 feet above ground level.

“Listeners traveling through our coverage area will no longer sometimes hear the swishing
sound of multipath, or experience occasional signal drops,” said Malone. “Our position on
the upper third of the tower, along with the circular polarization, will greatly improve the
listener experience for legacy and new listeners.”

The new Dielectric antenna also includes a radome.

Malone added, “For maximum reliability in adverse weather conditions, broadcasters generally choose to protect their radiating elements by covering them with radome enclosures. That is what we have elected to do as part of the DCR-H design. Allowing ice to form on the antenna will de-tune the system, and reflect power back down the transmission line. The antenna loses its ability to radiate its designed allotted power (17kW ERP), and creates problems for the transmitter. Dielectric’s radome eliminates these reflected power concerns caused by wintry weather, and offers a far more affordable option that adding electrical heaters within the antenna elements, which after a few years develop maintenance issues.”

Malone also says that once a decision was made to work with Dielectric, “they went straight to work with computer modeling. They used a collaborative software program to develop the directional radiation pattern using scaled tower models, radiator sizes, dimensions and test frequency while factoring orientation of the antenna for our tower position and geographic spread. They met a tough deadline for delivery with good communication skills and very fair pricing. They basically treated our small organization as if we were VIPs.”

In early November, RBR+TVBR was first to report on a transaction that sees HC2 Holdings say goodbye to a trio of digital full-power TV stations — along with a LPTV facility — in the Valley of the Sun.

Now, the deal has gained FCC approval, giving the company behind the MeTV brand added oomph in some key markets.

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NEW YORK — When production integration company Jetwave Wireless needed a way to broadcast in voiceover talent during the major network broadcasts of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Lighting, project engineer Josh Flower turned to Digigram’s IQOYA *SERV/LINK, a multi-channel IP audio codec, and paired it with IQOYA TALK, a portable IP audio codec designed for live and remote broadcasting.

Used to make live announcements before and after commercial breaks, Flower selected the *SERV/LINK and TALK for their remote-control capability.

The *SERV/LINK was used locally at broadcast truck compound, while the IQOYA TALK was used at the voiceover talent’s home located on Long Island — miles away from site of the broadcasts in Manhattan.

“We had been looking for an audio-over-IP solution that features broadcast-quality audio, and the IQOYA device came to our attention,” Flower said. “We did some testing and it proved to be an easily deployable solution in situations where internet and IP might not feature the best setups and where we might have some concerns. For instance, during these broadcasts the voiceover talent was coming in live from their home and relying on their home internet. The technology in the IQOYA devices helped us get over those challenges.”

Flower said that the simplicity of connecting the IQOYA TALK back to the *SERV/LINK was key.

“In this situation, the remote-control ability which allowed the voiceover talent to plug the box into their home internet and be up and running within a few minutes was important,” Flower said. “We were able to, all the way from 34th Street in Manhattan, control everything about his audio path which was great.”

— Dominick Stern, in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.

The National Association of Television Program Executives (NATPE), the content producers, distributors, streamers and buyers association that’s gained the attention of brokers and top broadcast TV industry leaders for its annual NATPE Miami affair, has unveiled its full slate of virtually delivered sessions and speakers for its upcoming 2021 event.

It’s a four-day online event focused on four channels, and programmed, NATPE says, “as a television business newscast.”

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PERTH, AUSTRALIA — codec manufacturer Tieline has confirmed that the new Gateway Multichannel IP audio codec is now available to purchase and is now shipping.

The Tieline Gateway is a DSP-based 1RU IP codec enabling transport of multiple channels of mono or stereo audio across the Public Internet or any QoS-enabled IP network, including T1 and T3 connections and private WANs with MPLS. The Gateway streams up to 16 IP audio channels with support for AES67, ST 2110-30, AES3 and analog I/O as standard.

“This is an exciting day for Tieline and is the culmination of many months of research, design and development,” said Tieline CEO Will McLean. “Broadcasters these days want more functionality within a compact rackmount footprint, combined with simple connectivity and flexible remote control features. The new generation Gateway codec delivers best-in-class functionality and interoperability for IP streaming over WANs, as well as integration with AES67 and ST 2110-30 compatible networks.”

Gateway Replaces Merlin PLUS and Genie Distribution Codecs
“The Gateway is perfect for large-scale audio distribution as well as managing multiple incoming remotes at the studio,” Tieline says. “It will immediately replace and supersede the popular Merlin PLUS and Genie Distribution codecs by delivering more connection options, flexible scalability over time, as well as new IP technologies.”

The Gateway integrates with all Tieline IP codecs and delivers hitless packet switching using SmartStream PLUS redundant streaming, plus bandwidth aggregation using Fuse-IP technologies over internet connections. It supports 16 bidirectional mono or 8 bidirectional stereo streams of IP audio in 1RU to increase channel density and reduce rack space requirements.

It is interoperable with all Tieline IP codecs and compatible over SIP with all EBU N/ACIP Tech 3326 and 3368 compliant codecs and devices.

The Gateway has two standard versions. One supports 8 Channels in/out (8 Mono or 4 Stereo) and the other supports 16 Channels in/out (16 Mono or 8 Stereo). The codec also supports a flexible upgrade path that allows you to buy a Gateway with 8 channels and upgrade the codec over time as needs change or your network expands.

The Tieline Gateway interfaces with analog and AES/EBU sources, as well as newer broadcast plants with AES67 and ST 2110-30 IP audio infrastructure. An optional WheatNet-IP card will also be available.

Gateway is configurable through an embedded HTML5 Toolbox Web-GUI interface and is also fully controllable using Tieline’s Cloud Codec Controller.

Notice About Discontinued Merlin PLUS and Genie Distribution Codecs The Gateway codec supersedes the Merlin PLUS and Genie Distribution codecs and production of these codecs has ceased. Tieline will continue to provide support and software updates for the Merlin PLUS and Genie Distribution.